З нагоды ўрачыстага перапахаваньня Кастуся Каліноўскага ў Вільні, 22 лістапада 2019 г.
In honor of the ceremonial reinterment of Kastus’ Kalinouski (1838-1864) in Vilnius, November 22, 2019.
In January 1863 Belarusians, Poles and Lithuanians rose up against the occupying Russian empire. Kalinouski led the uprising in the Belarusian and Lithuanian lands (lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania).
Russian imperial forces stamped out the last embers of the uprising at the beginning of 1864. The re-occupying Russian imperial authorities executed Kalinouski and a score of other participants in Vilnius in early 1864; the Russians buried Kalinouski and 19 others uncerimoniously and unentombed in unmarked graves on the grounds of the Vilnius citadel.
The knowledge that the group had been buried somewhere within the citadel was never lost. However, an exploratory dig in the citadel during the German occupation of Vilnius in World War I failed to find the graves; during the incorporation of Vilnius into the interwar Second Polish Republic, the presumed area of the graves was marked with crosses, but no one undertook a systematic dig. Subsequently, the Soviet regime, which occupied Lithuania and western Belarus for 50 years, showed interest neither in elevating Kalinouski to the position he deserved in the Belarusian national revival nor in trying to locate and properly reinter Kalinouski’s remains. Likewise the group ruling Belarus since 1994 has showed no interest in honoring Kalinouski. Indeed, aside from sterilely asserting that Kalinouski was a Polish, not Belarusian, patriot, the current Belarusian administration tolerates the continued presence of a bust of Stalin facing the bust of Kalinouski pictured below. In contrast to the official Belarusian position, much of the Belarusian population reveres Kalinouski as a Belarusian patriot and key figure in the national revival.
In 2016 landslips on one side of the citadel mound stimulated a concerted, and successful, attempt to locate the graves. Forensic examination led to the definitive identification of Kalinouski and his comrades in arms.
The Lithuanian and Polish governments chose November 22, 2019 as the date for a ceremonial state funeral service at Vilnius cathedral, attended by the presidents of Lithuania and Poland; honor-guard cortege; and solemn reinterment of Kalinouski and the others in the restored chapel of the Rasos Cemetery (Могілкі Росы, Rasų kapinės).
While the Belarusian authorities sent minimal representation, Belarusian Roman Catholic archbishop Kandrusevich took part in the funeral service. More significant was the fact that thousands of Belarusians traveled to Vilnius to attend the ceremony, and Vilnius was awash in the beautiful white-red-white Belarusian flag. See, for instance, https://nn.by/?c=ar&i=241583.
Bust of Kastus’ Kalinouski, S’vislach 2001.
Бюст Кастуся Каліноўскага, Сьвіслач 2001 г.
